Another agency joins anti-double charging campaign

A Labour MP campaigning against the controversial For Sale By Tender method where agents charging fees to sellers and buyers has won a seventh backer from inside the industry.

Walthamstow agency Estates 17 has joined six others in the same part of London - Outlook Residential Property Agents, Spencers Property, 21st Century Land, Central Estate Agents, Strettons and the Stow Brothers - in support of the campaign by Labour MP Stella Creasy, the party's consumer affairs spokeswoman.

We have never had any involvement with Sale By Informal Tender or Sealed Bids. Our aim is to work with the present and future local community, not against it says an Estates 17 spokesman.

Creasy, who earlier this year engaged in what she calls a name and shame exercise on agents in her Walthamstow constituency which double charged,

says this method of selling leaves both sellers and buyers short-changed.

It has also generated large amounts of controversy in the national press.

Creasy claims some agents conducting For Sale By Tender sealed bid' sales charge the successful bidder an introductory fee which can be as much as 2.0 to 2.5 per cent of the sale price plus VAT. Then sellers are also charged a fee to market their property at the same time, although this is often a relatively small one-off up-front cost.

Buyers often end up lowering their offers to accommodate the additional cost of paying such a fee- which can be several thousands of pounds, meaning the seller will receive less for their asset and may lose opportunities to sell their property to those who cannot afford such a charge claims Creasy.

There is also a conflict of interest for the estate agent to receive money from two parties to the same sale, as it is not clear in whose interests they operate. The only party benefiting in this arrangement is the agent pocketing a substantial fee.